Walk into a board game café in Leith or the Southside on a weeknight and you’ll see the usual modern favourites on the tables. Look closer, though, and you might find something much older: a square board with a king in the centre, surrounded by attackers and defenders. Traditional Northern European games are having a quiet revival in the capital, and a lot of new players first learn the rules through resources like Gamerules, which covers everything from chess variants to folk games that most people have never heard of.
Scotland’s link to the Viking board game
The best known of the old games is Hnefatafl (roughly “the king’s table”), part of a family of tafl games played across Scandinavia and the Norse world for centuries before chess arrived. Unlike chess, tafl is asymmetric: one side has a king and a small group of defenders in the middle of the board, the other has twice as many attackers around the edges.
Scotland’s Norse history, especially in Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles, means tafl isn’t as foreign here as it sounds. Gaming pieces and boards linked to tafl-style games have been found at Norse sites across the north of Scotland, and the historian’s shorthand for all this is simple: before chess, this is what the Vikings played.
The Lewis Chessmen: Scotland’s most famous game pieces
You can’t talk about old Scottish games without mentioning the Lewis Chessmen. Found on the Isle of Lewis in 1831, the 12th-century pieces are carved mostly from walrus ivory and include the famous wide-eyed queens and the “berserker” warders biting their shields.
Most of the pieces are held by the British Museum in London, while a smaller group is on display at the National Museum of Scotland on Chambers Street. They’re a reminder that medieval Scots had the same appetite for strategy games we have today. The hoard also included plain disc-shaped pieces, a sign that other board games were being played alongside chess.
Five traditional games worth learning
Here’s a quick guide to the old games you’re most likely to come across at Edinburgh game nights:
| Game | Origin | Players | Board | Why it’s worth trying |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hnefatafl | Norse / Viking | 2 | 11×11 or 13×13 | Asymmetric sides, very tense endgames |
| Tablut | Sámi (Lapland) | 2 | 9×9 | Smaller, faster tafl game, good for beginners |
| Brandubh | Ireland | 2 | 7×7 | A compact tafl version you can learn in minutes |
| Fox and Geese | Northern Europe, popular in Britain | 2 | Cross-shaped | One fox against thirteen geese, easy to play on paper |
| Nine Men’s Morris | Ancient, widely played in medieval Britain | 2 | Three nested squares | Simple rules with real depth |
How Hnefatafl works
The basic rules are easy to pick up:
- The defenders win if the king escapes to one of the corner squares.
- The attackers win if they surround the king, usually on all four sides.
- All pieces move like a rook in chess, any number of squares in a straight line.
- You capture an enemy piece by trapping it between two of your own.
The catch is that there’s no single “correct” rulebook. Because the original rules were never fully written down, modern players use reconstructions, and clubs often agree on house rules before a game. That flexibility is part of the charm.
Fox and Geese: the easiest place to start
If tafl sounds like a commitment, Fox and Geese is the perfect gateway. One player has a single fox, the other has thirteen (sometimes seventeen) geese. The fox captures by jumping, like in draughts. The geese can’t capture at all, but they win by trapping the fox so it can’t move. It’s a great game to play with kids, and you can draw the board on a sheet of paper in a couple of minutes.
Why these old games are catching on again
A few things seem to be driving the revival:
- Short setup, big depth. Most traditional games need a board and a handful of pieces. No 40-page rulebooks, no expansions.
- Strong local stories. In a city with Edinburgh’s history, playing a game with Norse or medieval roots feels connected to the place.
- Asymmetry is fashionable. Modern hobby games love uneven sides with different goals, and tafl did it a thousand years ago.
- They’re cheap and accessible. Pub games and café sessions welcome beginners, and many games can be taught in five minutes.
Where to play in Edinburgh
You don’t need a club membership to get started. Board game cafés around the city often have traditional sets on their shelves, and several regular game nights in pubs and community spaces are happy to teach newcomers. The Edinburgh Festival Fringe and local history events also tend to include medieval and Viking-themed activities, which are a relaxed way to try a few rounds.
If you’d rather play at home, a simple plan works well:
- Start with Fox and Geese or Brandubh to learn the idea of capture by trapping.
- Move up to Tablut, then Hnefatafl on a full-size board.
- Swap sides every game, because the attacking and defending roles feel completely different.
An old tradition with a new crowd
The best part of the revival is who’s playing. Retired history buffs, students, parents with young kids and seasoned hobby gamers are all sitting down at the same kind of board. Games like Hnefatafl survived for centuries because they’re easy to learn and hard to master, and that still holds up in an Edinburgh café today. Next time you’re at a game night, skip the latest release for one round and try something a thousand years older.
